Feed Performance

This tag covers the technical mechanics of how RSS feeds are fetched, cached, and re-checked by auto-posting and aggregation tools, including topics like conditional GET requests, ETags, and polling efficiency. It's aimed at site owners and developers who want to understand what happens behind the scenes when an automation tool checks their feed for new content. Articles here explain how these mechanisms affect server load, bandwidth, and how quickly new posts get picked up. The goal is demystifying the technical side of feed polling for readers who want more than a surface-level explanation. The practical upshot for a publisher is small but real: serving ETags and honouring conditional requests means most checks cost almost nothing, for you and for whatever is polling you.